Connor Austell

Based in Lancaster, SC, pianist Connor Austell is a versatile musician and educator equally at home in the performance hall and in the lecture hall. A firm believer that scholarship and musicianship go hand-in-hand, Dr. Austell’s teaching philosophy holds that decisions made in musical performance should be grounded in a historical, theoretical, and pedagogical understanding of the score. His debut album "Blind Tom’s Creative Vision" is available on all major streaming platforms, and his recent article on the piano works of Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins will appear in an upcoming edition of American Musical Perspectives.

Dr. Austell holds degrees from the University of Georgia, the University of Michigan, and Grand Valley State University, where he studied with David Fung, Arthur Greene, and Sookkyung Cho. He studied chamber music under the tutelage of Katherine Collier, Helen Marlais, and Pablo Mahave-Veglia, and has participated in masterclasses with world-class artists such as Jonathan Biss and Martin Katz. His enthusiasm for Baroque music was fostered by a study of harpsichord and organ technique with Gregory Crowell. Dr. Austell currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, where he also serves as artistic director for the Lancaster Performance Series.